Some sage spice and advice for all my little Turkeys

Here is some sage advice I want to pass on to my children and grandchildren:



It's always darkest before dawn , so if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.



Never test the depth of the water with both feet.



Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.



If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.



Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield.



Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.



There are two theories to arguing with a women - Neither one works. (for Josh and Sam)



Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.



and last but not least:



Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.



If you need any more advice, ask your mother. She'll probably say something like:

Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips aremoving.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

It’s been a long time since my last post. The election is over, Obama won, we went to Disney World and we went on with our lives. Now Thanksgiving approaches and I think of all I am thankful for. I thank God for my family and especially for his most recent gifts to me, my two grandsons Josh and Sam. I think back to my Father when I was young and he read me a poem and told me, “Michael throughout life you will have choices. Make them wisely and think about this poem.” To Josh and Sam I give you this old poem. May your lives be blessed as mine has and may you both have grandchildren that love you and that you can pass on this old poem to.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

"The Times They Are A-Changin'"

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'

Barack's Grandmother Has Died

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died following a bout with cancer, Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said Monday.
She was 86.
At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, Monday night, the Illinois senator said "she has gone home and she died peacefully in her sleep with my sister at her side."
"I'm not going to talk about it long because it's hard to talk about," he added.
Obama remembered her as "one of those quiet heroes we have across America, who aren't famous ... but each and every day they work hard. They look after their families. They look after their children and their grandchildren."
In a statement released Monday afternoon, Obama and his sister said that Dunham was "the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility." "She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances. She was proud of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and left this world with the knowledge that her impact on all of us was meaningful and enduring. Our debt to her is beyond measure."
Obama and Soetoro-Ng asked that donations be made for the search for a cure for cancer in lieu of flowers. A small private ceremony will be held "at a later date."
Dunham passed away peacefully at her home shortly before midnight Sunday night (5 a.m. ET), campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNN. She said Obama learned of her death around 8 a.m.
Obama's republican rival, Sen. John McCain, issued a statement Monday afternoon:
"We offer our deepest condolences to Barack Obama and his family as they grieve the loss of their beloved grandmother. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives."
The Democratic presidential candidate left the campaign trail on October 23 and flew to Honolulu, Hawaii, to spend the day with Dunham, whose health deteriorated after she suffered a broken hip.
His wife, Michelle Obama, filled in for him at events in Columbus and Akron, Ohio, on October 24.
Obama said in an interview taped for that day's "Good Morning America" that Dunham had been "inundated" with flowers and messages from strangers who read about her in Obama's 1995 book, "Dreams From My Father."
"Maybe she is getting a sense of long-deserved recognition toward the end of her life," he said. The candidate resumed his campaign on October 25.
Obama has spoken often about his grandmother -- who helped raise him -- as an integral figure in his youth and how she struggled against the glass ceiling in her career. He and his family traveled to Hawaii in August to visit her.
"She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life," he said in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. "She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well."

FROM GALLUP.COM: FINAL PRESIDENTIAL ESTIMATE: OBAMA 55%, MCCAIN 44%

The final USA Today/Gallup 2008 pre-election poll predicts Barack Obama will be elected the 44th president of the United States, as he holds a 55% to 44% advantage over John McCain in the allocated estimate of the 2008 presidential vote.
Read more at GALLUP.com.

Responsibility & Accountability - A New Standard

Last night I sat up waiting for the bewitching hour (1:00 am) when I would leave and go across town to my warehouse and monitor the Sunday truck unloading and my 24 trusty carrier/contractors prepare and leave with the Sunday newspaper. As I did so, I watched DL Hughley Breaks the News on CNN and one of the guests he had on was Rev. Al Sharpton, a man who has earned my ire many times over the years with his often over the top attacks against "White America". I was pleasantly surprised to hear both him and DL Hughley ask each other the question, "How will you feel if Obama wins this election?" They answered soberly and and calmly. Hughley said he had so much anger in the past and now he wondered what he would do with it. He also said, "we have no excuses now, we either make this work or we go home." Al Sharpton replied that Obama had spoken about his accountability, America's accountability and also the accountability of black families and fathers. He said that now it was very much an issue that all African Americans need to handle, both in looking at how they got here and what they were going to do now that they had arrived at this historic point. He said that Obama had raised the bar and each man and woman and child had something to look up to and be accountable for.

It was a good and insightful conversation but I would remind "White America" that in the past we have ignored our accountability in many areas and one is very much the same as Obama asked Black fathers to examine in themselves. We are not performing very well in this area either. We have a 50% plus divorce rate. Date rape is highest amongst young White men and is a growing problem today. Our attitudes towards family and women has seriously eroded. It is therefore just as important at this time that all Americans re-examine our accountability in all areas and make this election an opportunity to right wrongs, heal wounds and re-dedicate ourselves to doing what is right for family and country.

Sadly when I left home and arrived at my warehouse I was immediately reminded of the failings of many young men in the area of responsibility and accountability. A bar fronts the property on which my warehouse stands and I arrived to see offensive linemen size patrons spilling out its front door and bludgeoning each other with their fists. A drunken young black woman was ejected from the bar because she had removed her shirt. The police arrived, our parking lot was cleared so that the truck could enter and unload and the bars patrons flooded out to there cars as the police shut the bar down for the night. As they made there way to their cars a small drunken group of young black men started chanting, "Obama, Obama, Obama." Needless to say, many of my contractor/carries are neither fans of Obama or black people in general so it made me grimace as an Obama supporter and regular donor that these young men would be so lacking in responsibility and I wondered how accountable they would be after the election if Barack wins. How will the mood of hard core white racists be in response to this type of ugly celebration? How will this type of young black men handle the new standards that Barack expects of them? I am not without hope that these types of behavior will improve under an Obama administration but I do not look forward to the transitional period where it became obvious to me by this type of drunken behavior that the transition will not be without some violence and struggles to control and educate people to be responsible citizens regardless of the color of their skin.

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